**6. Conclusions**

*Protected Areas, National Parks and Sustainable Future*

**5.1 Complexity bears challenges**

**5.2 Implementing new policies**

this, a better understanding of how geomorphology, reliefs, watersheds, and paleo-

The new protected areas phase has increased the structural complexity of governance, which came at the cost of efficiency and efficacy. Many authors have identified and listed factors that impact forest and protected area governance efficiency, such as financial and human resources constraints, or the remoteness and accessibility of protected areas or forests [4, 82–84]. Many of these aspects are of "technical" nature: (i) developing better management plans based on evidence rather than political or marketing reasons to attract further funding (e.g., [85]) that can lead to (ii) improved and more efficient implementation; (iii) capacity building of staff would, inter alia, also allow for (iv) a better optimization of the use of scarce financial and human resources. According to Mauvais, Coordinator of the IUCN Program on African protected areas, [86] "(…) improving governance will have an infinitely greater impact than just working on what we are doing or trying to do in the field," referring to the abovementioned, where technical hurdles are much easier to overcome, especially with the most recent developments in monitoring and intime reporting of forest and park infractions (e.g., [87]). Tools like SMART (smartconservationtools.org/) or novel ones like the GLAD alerts (https://glad.umd.edu/ alerts), for example, allow the anticipation of forest fires, thus guiding management actions to address potential deforestation. The recording of forest soundscapes is also

a promising and novel tool for monitoring biodiversity for conservation [88].

During the NEAP period in the 1990s, the international community spearheaded

Before rushing into new policy implementations to mirror global trends, utmost

caution needs to rule to best assess potential risks. The CBD's (Convention on Biological Diversity) Aichi-Targets (target 11) require that by 2020, "at least 17% terrestrial and inland water areas and 10% of coastal and marine areas, (…) are conserved." While the protected area approach is globally still the most powerful conservation tool to safeguard biodiversity (e.g., [92, 93]), a problem in Madagascar with increasing the protected area surfaces, both on land and sea, is that there is no automatic guarantee of increased protection. Rather, this will increase the already gargantuan task of governing and managing protected areas and its forests and biodiversity. Currently, there are over 1 million ha of protected areas (26 sites) of so-called "paper parks," that is, not managed at all [61]. One looming factor, regardless of governance and management, is the financing of these parks. If the international community is interested in safeguarding the unique biodiversity, which

by the World Bank pushed the Malagasy government to implement forest governance devolution, that is, to better engage with riverine populations and have them engaged in the decision-making process and management of forests and protected areas. In rather a short time and with little evidence of success, more than 450 socalled transfers of management have been installed across Madagascar [89]. To date, it remains still unclear whether this comanagement has been fruitful [90, 91]. Main problems lie in the noncommunication between park agents and village representatives and the mutual nontrust in working together among other reasons (see [83] for an example of governance perceptions around the Zahamena National Park). As shown in our case study examples from the Tsimanampetsotsa or Menabe protected areas, core areas of the original parks (with higher restrictions) show much slower

deforestation than areas under a comanagement agreement.

refugia influenced the distribution of the endemic biodiversity is crucial.

**100**

The area of protected areas has been greatly increased over the past years. The protected areas represent last vestiges for intact forests, as fragmentation and degradation are advancing at fast pace mainly outside their borders. Governance has now the gargantuan task to ensure that the parks and reserves are fulfilling their role of protecting the endemic biodiversity of Madagascar. The endemic biodiversity is still far from being known, research needs to be maintained to document but also to adapt the network of protected areas to allow that the entire biodiversity can benefit from protection, as well as find adequate and necessary means to carry out this task (viz., conservation and management tools, and funds, to list but the most important once). The endemic biodiversity of Madagascar is an inestimable heritage for the generations of Madagascar and the world, and the parks and reserves are its best chance for the future.
